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StarCraft II
:For information on StarCraft II units, see List of StarCraft II units. StarCraft II is a sequel to the real-time strategy game StarCraft, announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea.Onyett, Charles. 2007-05-18. IGN: Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational Begins IGN.com, Retrieved 2007-05-19.Park, Andrew. 2007-05-18. GameSpot: Starcraft II warps into Seoul. Gamespot. Retrieved 2007-05-19. It is set to be released as a trilogy.Mike Farley. 2008-10-10. StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy! Kotaku.com Accessed 2008-10-10.Eduardo Vasconcellos. 2008-10-10. Blizzcon 08: StarCraft II Split Into Three Games. IGN. Accessed 2008-10-10. The Trilogy The game will be split into three separate products, based around the terran, zerg and protoss campaigns respectively. The first will be called Terrans: Wings of Liberty, the second will be called Zerg: Heart of the Swarm and the third will be called Protoss: Legacy of the Void.Mike Farley. 2008-10-10. StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy! Kotaku.com Accessed 2008-10-10.Eduardo Vasconcellos. 2008-10-10. Blizzcon 08: StarCraft II Split Into Three Games. IGN. Accessed 2008-10-10. The latter two products are considered to be expansion sets.Karune. 2008-10-14. StarCraft II Trilogy FAQ. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-10-17. Little to no work is currently being done on them, Wings of Liberty being Blizzard's focus. Blizzard Entertainment chose this route due to the challenges they faced creating the campaigns. Now they can create more content per campaign, such as movies, sets, props, characters, missions (including Easter egg missions) and so forth. Each character will have their own arcs, missions and dialog.Rob Pardo. 2008-10-10. Starcraft 2 Trilogy Announcement. Wegame.com Accessed 2008-10-12. Each campaign will have 26-30 missions in total (including branching missions) and a set ending, rather than a cliff-hanger. All three races will be completely developed for the multiplayer skirmish mode. The three campaigns do not occur simultaneously in-universe. Rather, they occur in chronological order,2008-09-11, StarCraft II Lore Panel. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed on 2008-12-11 each campaign beginning immediately after its predecessor.2007-17-11, StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 46. Karune. Accessed on 2008-18-11 The latter two expansions are expected to take over a year to release.Dustin Browder, Bob Colayco, Chris Sigaty, Brad. 2008-10-17. Q&A: The Starcraft II Brain Trust. Giant Bomb News. Accessed 2008-10-20. Each will upgrade and expand multiplayer content in addition to containing a campaign, such as new units, abilities and structures. Development History Development on the game began shortly after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne back in July 2003.Stapleton, Dan. "StarCraft II." PC Gamer Magazine 164 (August 2007): 20-30. The development was ramped up shortly after the production of World of Warcraft which was when Blizzard Entertainment hired Dustin Browder on March 14th, 20052007-07-20. StarCraft 2: Interview mit Dustin Browder (in German) GameStar. Accessed 2007-07-22. to the position of senior designer.Mielke, James. 2007-07-27. Protoss for a Day. 1up.com Accessed 2007-07-28. He later became the lead designer.2007-05-19. Gameplay Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. The game is updated approximately once a week.Also remember that the game changes in balance or design about once a week. This means it's VERY easy to forget to do something in the middle of a heated game. So our games are just not going to be as fierce as current Broodwar games until sometime during (or even after) Beta when everything settles down a bit. Cavez (Dustin Browder). 2009-01-08. Introducing StarCraft II Battle Reports (page 5). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-01-09. Game development is "very far along," and already playable in multiplayer. The game was still in internal alpha/pre-alpha in August, 2008.Onyett, Charles, Frank Pearce. 2008-08-20. GC 2008: StarCraft II Progress Report: The process of fine-tuning continues. IGN. Accessed 2008-08-20. Two weeks before BlizzCon 2008, the entire company played StarCraft II, an important milestone.Chris Sigaty, Samwise Didier. Blizzcon 2008 StarCraft 2 Press Q&A. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2008010-12. Blizzard considered StarCraft II to be a long way from betaSamwise Didier, Jonatan "Mazor" Littke. 2008-06-29. SC2: Q&A at WWI 2008. GosuGamers. Accessed 2008-07-01. and expected it may take "months" from August 2008; but by October 2008 Blizzard said the beta "draws near".http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/october/blizzcon/blizzcon_022.jpg In December 2008, Blizzard once again stated that a beta is planned.StarCraft II is planned to have a beta ;) Karune. 2008-12-10. Star Craft II Beta. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-12-10. Blizzard has yet to decide on whether there will be an open beta or a hosted beta. A beta key was released at BlizzCon 2008.BlizzCon 2008: Day One Wrap-Up. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-10-17. The teams still have a lot of work to do on the single-player campaign and on battle.net improvements,Wesley Lin-Poole, Frank Pearce. 2008-08-21. Blizzard still can't date StarCraft 2. Videogamer.com Accessed 2008-08-21. and sound work had barely begun as of August 2008.Nick Breckon. 2008-09-02. StarCraft 2 Impressions: My Life for Ire. Shacknews. Accessed 2008-09-10. Afterwards the game will focus again on multiplayer and the map editor.Karune, player_72985. 2008-09-01. StarCraftWire.net Interviews Karune. StarCraft Wire. Accessed 2008-09-01. As of December 2008 the primary focus was on the single-player campaignMost of the development on the game is currently on single player, so getting new information for you guys in regards to multiplayer gameplay related changes has been more scarce. Keep those questions coming in still to: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=10697501073&sid=3000 When we get enough good questions, we will get that next batch out. Art questions now are we plus too, as the art team has been making lots of progress in polishing up buildings, units, and animations. Karune. 2008-12-11. When Batch 47 ? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-12-14. and working on battle.net so the beta can come in a "reasonable" amount of time."Part of the beta for me that I'm excited to get out as well is battle.net. We are making significant changes and are right in the middle of that right now. We're working madly on that to make sure it's in place so we are ready to go into beta in a reasonable amount of time." Chris Sigaty, Dustin Browder, X-Play. 2008-12-22. All Access Preview: Starcraft II. G4TV.com Accessed 2008-12-23. No official beta release date has been announced.Please note that there is no official announcement of a StarCraft II Beta start date. Karune. 2009-01-21. Beta Keys to be added to Contests. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-01-21. Blizzard expects the game to be released faster than the usual 3-4 year period after a game is announced.Sigaty, Chris. 2007-08-30. Starcraft II - BlizzCon 2007 Visuals and Story Interview. GameTrailers.com Accessed 2007-12-03. The game has no certain release dateKalning, Kristin. 2007-05-31. Can Blizzard top itself with 'StarCraft II? MSNBC Accessed 2008-01-19. but will not be released in 2008.2008-28-08, Pearce on StarCraft II release date: “This year? Like, 2008? Too much work to do”. Videogaming 247. Accessed on 2008-28-08 In December 2008 Chris Sigaty said the game or beta should be out by 2009.Chris Sigaty, Dustin Browder, X-Play. 2008-12-22. All Access Preview: Starcraft II. G4TV.com Accessed 2008-12-23. In February 2009 Blizzard COO Chris Sams said the beta was "months away".Michael McWhertor. 2009-02-11. StarCraft II, Next Gen Battle.net Betas "In The Next Few Months". Kotaku. Accessed 2009-02-11. In February 2009 Dustin Browder addressed criticisms that the beta was taking too long to announce, saying they Blizzard still needed to do work on the campaign and on battle.net, and that the beta would be announced when they had an idea what the release date would be. He also believed the beta would be announced in 2009.I see lots of questions about timelines. Here is a little FAQ. Question: "Why hasn't Blizzard released the Beta?" or "WTF have they been working on, I played it at Blizzcon last year and I thought it was done!" Answer: Solo campaign is under heavy construction as is Battlenet. When these things have enough work done that we know when our release date is going to be with strong confidence we will announce the Beta. Unless something crazy happens, the Beta is going to happen this year. Question: "Why don't you just give us your target dates if you don't know the final date? We promise, we won't get mad if Blizzard misses target dates." Answer: Let's be realistic. Our target dates are not something we hit more than half the time. Putting those out there would be pretty close to lying to the fans. We are not going to do that. We want to be able to give good info, not info that we know is suspect. We'll give target dates when we think it is very likely that we will hit them. Question: When can we have the next Battle Report? Answer: We were waiting on getting some improved graphics in (some of the new stuff looked REALLY rough). That was finished last week and we are now playing and looking for a good game. Once we get that game the process is reasonably quick to get it out. Once we go Beta, you guys can do these and put them up. When that happens I'm sure there will be a ton of them and I'm sure the quality of the games played and the announcing will go way up. Question: "I notice that you haven't actually given us any dates...." Answer: Yeah. Sorry. We don't want to lie about the Beta, and we don't even want to lie about the next Battle Report. When we know a date (for anything) for certain, we'll let you know. Hang in there. We're in the final stretch. Cavez. 2009-02-16. Some Updates. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-16. Developers The lead designer for StarCraft II is Dustin Browder.2007-05-19. Gameplay Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. The team devoted to StarCraft II consists of only about 40 developers, including twelve people who worked on the original StarCraft.Zerg Announcement Interview (translated). StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2008-03-10. The team consists of four or five managers, 12-14 programmers, 8-10 artists and the rest consist of designers. It has its own internal leadership structure.Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco, Adam Doree. 2008-09-11. Interview: Blizzard Co-founder Frank Pearce. Kikizo. Accessed 2008-09-19. A "couple" of ex-progamers are part of the team, working on balance issues such as mutalisk micromanagement and creating strategies against each other. Gameplay StarCraft II gameplay will feature the original three gameplaying races and no new races.Park, Andrew (2007-05-19). Q&A session details Starcraft II. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.Rausch, Allen (2007-05-19). StarCraft II Q&A Sessions. GameSpy. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.Schleicher, Keith. Interview with Blizzard's Kevin Yu on StarCraft II Gaming Trend. Accessed 2007-10-01. StarCraft II retains some units from the original game, although some of these units have been given new abilities. Due to story events from the previous game, some units have been phased out or replaced. For example, the conquest of the protoss homeworld of Aiur has prevented the creation of more dragoons - the transplanted forms of protoss warriors in exoskeletons - resulting in the remaining dragoons to be redesigned with different weaponry and a shield that absorbs heavy damage and renamed to "immortals".Blizzard Entertainment. 2007-05-19. Immortal. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-06. Retrieved 19 May 2007 The demo reveals new abilities that involve more complex interaction with the game environment than in StarCraft. Terran units known as reapers can swiftly leap over cliffs, and protoss stalkers are capable of short-range teleportation to pursue fleeing enemies. Additionally, new abilities have been extended to structures. The protoss are able to warp prefabricated units within range of their pylons, and also possess the warp prism, a unit that acts as a mobile pylon, providing power to protoss buildings in the absence of conventionally built pylons. The number of units in the game will not significantly change. For every new unit added, one "underused" unit has been removed.Rausch, Allen 'Delsyn'. 2007-05-20. Gamespy Panel Report. Gamespy. Retrieved 2007-05-21.Edwards, Tim. 2007-11-07. Terran-forming. CVG PC Gamer. Accessed 2007-11-08. Multiplayer Gaming StarCraft II is also designed to focus more heavily on the multiplayer aspect, when compared to the original StarCraft. The changes include overall improvement in Battle.net, a new competitive "ladder" system for ranked games, and new matchmaking mechanics – designed to "match-up" players of equal skill levels.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft2.com - FAQ. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2007-06-30. In addition, the replay function, which allows players to record and review past games, will be improved. Resource sharing between allies may also be allowed.Karune. 2007-07-23. StarCraft II Q&A - Karune Briefings. StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-09-06. The game is currently set to have eight players. The number of players in custom games is expected to be at least 8, and Blizzard is "shooting" for 12 or more.Avez. 2009-02-09. Max amount of players on custom maps? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-09. Blizzard Entertainment intends to make the game fun for beginner and intermediate players, as well as give expert players more depth in gameplay. As each installment of the trilogy is released, multiplayer will, for all intents and purposes, be updated in a manner similar to the relationship between StarCraft and its expansion-both can be played, but the latter features more content.2008-10-13. BlizzCon Chris Sigaty StarCraft 2 Interview. IncGamers. Accessed on 2008-10-14 Gameplay Differences from StarCraft *The script-driven AI,Chris Sigaty, ScuttleMonkey et al. 2008-10-15. Blizzard Answers Your Questions, From Blizzcon. Slash Dot. Accessed 2008-10-25. programmed by Bob Fitch, has been improved; it will scout more and make decisions accordingly.Karune. 2008-02-08. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 29. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-06-06. It won't be able to see everything its opponent player has, even on difficult mode.2008-10-13. BlizzCon Chris Sigaty StarCraft 2 Interview. IncGamers. Accessed on 2008-10-14 *Maps start out explored (but hidden due to the fog of war) rather than completely blacked out as in StarCraft I.Lord of Ascension. 2008-07-18. WWI Resources. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2008-07-18. *Terrain combat bonuses have been removed. However, terrain is still important in a battle. For instance, units that attack from a ledge will not be revealed to the player of the units being attacked.Karune. 2008-06-11. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 40. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-06-11. **Units at the base of a ramp will not be able to target opponents beyond the top of the ramp, but will be able to see brief flashes of attacking units. Units that reach halfway up the ramp will have unrestricted vision above the ramp.to comment on page 2 in regards to LOS on rampsIf the attacking units move halfway up the ramp, they get their full vision radius above the ramp. If the ramp is blocked at the bottom, the attacking units will not be able to target what is beyond the top of the ramp, though they will be able to see snapshots of units that attack them so they will be able to understand the scale of the threat that exists at the top of the ramp. Karune. 2008-06-11. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 40. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-06-11. **"Line of sight blockers" will enable units to ambush each other, resembling bushesDustin Browder, Ricardo Torres. 2008-03-12. Gamespot: Dustin Browder Starcraft 2 Interview. Blizzplanet/Gamespot. Accessed 2008-03-13. smokeLeord. 2008-10-11. BlizzCon StarCraft 2 Gameplay Findings. StarCraft Wire. Accessed 2008-10-11. (found on space platforms)Hammy. 2009-02-09. ESL Finals Paris StarCraft II Gameplay Impressions. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-02-09. and tall grass.As you mentioned, currently there are three features in the map, which are Destructible Rocks, Grass and Xel'Naga Watch Tower. And as you can see the answer to the same question in Q&A Batch 47, our development team will be pleased to add more if we can design other features which will make the game more exciting and balanced as well. However, in my opinion, it seriously affects gameplay itself and the balance as well, so that it needs to be very careful to find and add more features, for keeping gameplay still exciting and balaced. Right now, there is no other addition to the map, other than those three features. Cydra. 2008-01-08. Any word on other. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-10. Air units can easily see through the blockers.Hammy. 2009-02-09. ESL Finals Paris StarCraft II Gameplay Impressions. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-02-09. *Certain zerg units can not only burrow but also move underground allowing these units to move right past enemies and possibly into their bases more easily.Medievaldragon. 2008-03-10, StarCraft II-Zerg Unveiled. Blizzplanet. Accessed on 2008-03-10 *When a player's main buildings are destroyed, they are eventually revealed.2008-08-21. GC 2008: Crystals Gameplay (Cam) HD. Gametrailers. Accessed 2008-08-21. *Given time, Blizzard would like to make various upgrades be seen visually on the upraged units, similar to marines' shields. I <3 SC Contest : Blizzard Interview. Judge Hype StarCraft II. Accessed on 2008-03-10 *Units will be able to pass through shallow water.http://i36.tinypic.com/2ewek2d.jpg2008-10-10. Screenshots. SC2pod. Accessed 2008-10-11. *Some doodads can be destroyed by effects such as explosion, possibly opening up inaccessible areas of a map.Karune. 2007-10-29. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 19. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-10-30. Destructible rocks will have viewable hit points and can be destroyed by any attacking unit.Karune. 2007-11-12. Chat with Karune about the Screenshots. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-11-12. Cliff-climbing units such as the reaper and colossus can climb or jump over the rocks.Karune. 2007-12-12. Chat with Karune about the Screenshots (page 10). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-12-21. *Xel'naga watch towers are neutral structures or doodads which can be temporarily captured by units. This expands that player's viewing area.Karune. 2007-11-12. Chat with Karune about the Screenshots. (Page 6) Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-11-12. *Customizable decals can be added to terran structures and units, showing various faction logos.We are exploring various 'customizable' traits with those decals, though nothing has been nailed down for sure yet. When we do, I'll make sure to keep everyone updated. Karune. 2008-05-23. StarCraft II Unit Update: Baneling. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-05-25. Blizzard has designed the Raynor's Raiders decal and is working on others, hoping to allow players to choose which decals their side will use.Samwise Didier, Dave Berggren. WWI SC2 Art Panel. Brightcove. Accessed 2008-08-01. *Multiple animations exist for units that are idle. *In melee games, players will be able to choose from between 12 to 18 colors.Karune. 2007-09-07. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 12. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-09-07. *The damage system has been significantly altered. Units now do base damage with bonuses against certain unit classes.Cavez. 2008-02-04. Armor in SC2. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-02-04. Control Scheme * When a ghost paints a target area for a nuclear missile, a large visible nuclear symbol appears to the player. The small red dot is still all that is seen by other players. *A player can select 255 units in the latest build.Exclusive Karune's answers for StarCraftCZ.com. StarCraftCZ.com Accessed 2008-06-03. *Units within a control group display their control group number. The selection UI displays how many units are in the group.Hammy. 2009-02-09. ESL Finals Paris StarCraft II Gameplay Impressions. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-02-09. *Control group tabs will display what units are bound to each group number. *Subgroups allow the player to scroll through different type of units in his current selection with the Tab key.Q u o t e: Lets say you have Zealots,Dragoon and High Templar hotkeyed in a squad. Is it unreasonable to type 't' for psisstorm and have it cast without having to select the High Templars by themselves. Or is this already in the game? Yup, currently they work similarly with Warcraft III. When you have a group selected of various types of units, when you hit 'tab' it will cycle thorough those various groups. This will be a key skill to master when dealing with large group battles in which those abilities cast could turn the battle. Karune. 2008-11-19. Big Time suggestion- Abilities in a squad. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-11-19.Blizzcon Video Archive (Sonkie vs Yellow). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-10-19. If a group of multiple unit types are selected, the player still has access to their abilities by tabbing through the subgroups.David Coldeway. 2008-08-29. PAX 2008: We get Zerged in Starcraft 2 (watch the zealot/stalker UI). CrunchGear. Accessed 2008-08-30. *Spellcasting units will use "smart casting"; when multiple units are given the same spell order, only one of them will comply, preventing a serious waste of spellcaster energy. * A player can select multiple buildings. Multiple selected combat buildings can "focus fire" on enemy units.You can do focused-fire on a specific enemy unit with your Photon Cannons, Bunkers, Missile Turrets and Spine Crawlers, etc. This would give you more strategical options when you defense your base from the enemy units. Cydra. 2008-12-05. Can we control buildings that shoot? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-12-05. **They can be put into selection groups. The player must push a button to create each individual unit from the group of structures. This applies even to larvae. Buildings with reactors will go into their own subgroup. Each structure will show how many units they are creating or (in the case of zerg hatcheries), how many larvae are available. Units will be produced at the structure with the shortest queue.Phreak. 2008-07-07. StarCraft II - Blizzard Worldwide Invitational Version. Blogspot (Blog). Accessed 2008-07-09. * A player can set a rally point for a "town hall" to a mineral or vespene source and workers will mine the resource automatically when built. Combat units will attack-move to the rally point.2007-08-12. Official Features Summary. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2007-08-13.Right now, when the rally point is set, the units will attack enemy units nearby while going to the rally point. Cydra. 2008-11-24. Will SC2 have improved rally point? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-11-24. **Two rally points are able to be set on a hatchery; one for drones and another for warrior units.Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-03-16. StarCraft 2 Korean and Chinese Build Summary. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-03-18.StarCraftLegacy. 2008-06-02. Zerg Gameplay 1 6/1/08. Veoh.com Accessed 2008-06-02. *Units can be rallied to bunkers and transports.In the current build you can rally a Barracks into a Bunker or a transport. Units rallied in this way move successfully to the bunker or transport and enter. If the transport is moving, the rallied unit will chase the transport until it catches up and then the rallied unit loads. Cavez. 2009-02-04. Dustin: Do units rallyed to bunker enter? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-01-05. * Idle worker units can be quickly selected with an idle worker button.Stapleton, Dan. "StarCraft II." PC Gamer Magazine 164 (August 2007): 20-30.Karune. 2008-02-04. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 28. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-02-04. *A player may be able to change the hotkeys around. *Player units "won't line up like ants" when given a move command. Units will not bunch up unless given a manual attack command against a specific enemy unit. If so, they will spread apart when the enemy unit dies or they become idle.Karune. 2007-11-13. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 21. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-11-14. Units in the same selection with different speed characteristics will continue to move at different rates.Karune. 2007-12-06. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 23 Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-12-07. *Holding the Alt button will show unit and building hit points overhead. *SCVs can autocast their Repair ability.James Mielke, Jeff Green. 2008-05-05. Previews: StarCraft II: Seven matches, seven deaths, seven victories. 1up.com Accessed 2008-05-6.Cavez (Browder, Dustin). 2007-07-25. Autocast Battle.net StarCraft General Discussion Forum Accessed 2007-07-25.In the current development stage, SCV's Repair, Medivac's Heal and Carrier's Interceptor training can be autocasted. Cydra. 2008-11-17. Autocasting. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-11-17. Carriers can auto-build their interceptors.Karune. 2008-04-08. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 34. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-04-08Source: Shacknews. Artist: Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-11-29. The new medivac dropships can autocast Heal just as medics could in StarCraft: Brood War.Zero. 2008-03-15. My Day At Blizzard. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2008-03-16. *Units have a hold button which stops them from moving and also from attacking.Karune. 2007-10-15. Karune: Did we get a "Hold Fire" command? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. *The player can zoom into the action, but cannot change the viewpoint left or right.GearvOsh. 2008-10-14. Community Q&A [Batch 1]. ''StarCraft II Armory. Accessed 2008-10-14. *Spellcasting and burrowing can be set into waypoints.You can waypoint casting ability. For example, High Templar will move to the first location, cast the Psi Storm and will return to the last designated location. You can waypoint Zerg's Burrow ability as well. The most recent waypoints will be displayed that you can see, and you can waypoint with Patrol command too. Cydra. 2009-02-17. Question about waypoint mechanics. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-18. E-sport Aids Multiplayer games will include menus, leaderboards and overlays displaying statistics: production, resources and resources (including a resources available and the rate they are accrued/used up), and APM.Blizzcon Video Archive (Sonkie vs Yellow). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-10-19.Dustin Browder, Robert Simpson, Matt Cooper, David Kim. 2008-12-19. Battle Report (1). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-12-19. A "telestrator" will be available to point things out to other players. Resource Mechanics :Main article: Vespene gas *Resource clusters will generally have two vespene gas geysers.Karune. 2008-07-16. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 41. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-07-16. A player can tap a depleted geyser for more vespene at a mineral cost.Cavez. 2008-06-29. WWI Gas Mechanic. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-06-29.Karune. 2008-07-16. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 41. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-07-16. High Yield Resources Gold-colored "high yield mineral fields" have been added to the game. These minerals are worth more per "chunk" transported by a worker unit.Mielke, James. 2007-07-27. Protoss for a Day. 1up.com Accessed 2007-07-28.Dustin Browder, Chris Sigaty, Samwise Didier and Gunnar "Leord" Petzall. Zerg Q&A. INC Gamers. Accessed on 2008-20-03 Expansion sites containing gold minerals will be worth fighting over, creating a new strategy around which expansion sites to claim. As of the World Wide Invitational 2008, they provided 8 minerals per trip. A similar mechanic for high-yield vespene geysers may also be devised.Karune. 2007-09-20. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 14. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-09-21. Battle.net and Metagame Functionality :Main article: Battle.net 2.0 Blizzard Entertainment intends to release a new version of battle.net with ''StarCraft II."Well we have a brand new version of the Battle.net that is in the works. It’s going to come out with Starcraft 2. I cannot really steal their thunder in terms of the specific feature set, because that is their announcement to make." Garrett Fuller. 2008-09-04. Exclusive Diablo III Interview from Leipzig GC '08 - Full Transcript. Ten Ton Hammer Network. Accessed 2008-09-15. Frank Pearce said they probably won't be able to implement all plans by the time StarCraft II launches, but they can add more features to battle.net "as we go".Phil Elliott, Frank Pearce. 2008-09-02. Blizzard's Frank Pearce. GamesIndustry.biz. Accessed 2008-09-02. Blizzard Entertainment intends on improving replay functionality, as well as better support for e-sports on battle.net. They are talking about things like cameraman-functionality, which currently exists in World of Warcraft.StarCraft Source staff, Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco. Interview with Frank Pierce and Bob Colayco. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2008-09-02. Replays can be "bookmarked" at certain time points but cannot be rewound.Chris Sigaty, Samwise Didier. 2008-10-23. StarCraft 2 US Press Conference. StarCraft Zine. Accessed 2008-10-24. Jeff Kaplan revealed that players of StarCraft II and Diablo III will share "gamer achievements", adding up to a Blizzard Level, in a similar manner to the system in World of Warcraft.Tracey John. 2008-08-01. Blizzard Plans To Track Gamer Achievements Across ‘WoW,’ ‘Starcraft’ And ‘Diablo’. MTV Multiplayer. Accessed 2008-08-01. Blizzard has not made a final decision on the matter.Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco, Billy Berghammer. 2008-09-08. Crafting a Sequel for Everyone: The Frank Pearce Interview (page 2). Crispy Gamer. Accessed 2008-09-10. Blizzard intends to continue support StarCraft II years after release, in a similar manner to the StarCraft patches, which have been updated more than ten years after the release of the original StarCraft.Frank Pearce, Leord, AusGamers. 2008-09-19. AusGamers Video Interview with Frank Pearce. IncGamers/AusGamers. Accessed 2008-09-19. Races and Units :'' Main article: List of StarCraft II units'' StarCraft II will only feature the three original races in standard multiplayer: protoss, terran, and zerg. It has been confirmed that there will not be a fourth race introduced.Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco, Dave 'Fargo' Kosak. 2008-08-21. Blizzard Talks StarCraft II at Leipzig (PC). Gamespy. Accessed 2008-08-23.Kalning, Kristin. 2007-05-31. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18925251/ Can Blizzard top itself with StarCraft II?]. MSNBC. Retrieved on 2007-06-01.Park, Andrew (2007-05-19). Q&A session details Starcraft II. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.Rausch, Allen (2007-05-19). StarCraft II Q&A Sessions. GameSpy. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.Schleicher, Keith. Interview with Blizzard's Kevin Yu on StarCraft II Gaming Trend. Accessed 2007-10-01. However, when asked about the possibility of hybrids and xel'naga in the game, Blizzard Entertainment employee Karune replied that "we are planning to explore the mysteries surrounding the Xel'naga for the single player campaign. In the campaign you will encounter several unique units that would not otherwise be seen in multiplayer."Karune. 2007-09-14. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 13. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-09-14. Blizzard discussed the possibility of a fourth race early on in the game's development. However, the development team felt that had a finite amount of ideas and wanted to make sure that they focused on the best ideas for the existing three playable races rather than diluting those ideas across four races. In the event that Blizzard decides to make an expansion for the game, Frank Pearce has stated that adding a fourth fully playable race would likely be discussed.2008-29-08. Pearce: Fourth StarCraft II race may be added by expansion. Videogaming 247. Accessed on 2008-30-08 Campaigns and Lore Or_-jn5AnoI&fmt=18 The game takes place four years after StarCraft: Brood War,Park, Andrew. 2007-05-20. Blizzard outlines StarCraft II gameplay. Gamespot.Metzen, Chris; Chambers, Andy; StarCraft Legacy staff. 2007-08-31. BlizzCon 2007 StarCraft Lore Panel Editorial. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2007-12-02. approximately the same time as the storyline of StarCraft: Ghost.2006-02-15. Story. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-01. The storyline is being written by Chris Metzen and Andy Chambers, concurrently with The Dark Templar Saga which is written by Christie Golden. Each of the three StarCraft II campaigns -- terran Wings of Liberty, zerg Heart of the Swarm and protoss Legacy of the Void -- will be released as separate products.Mike Farley. 2008-10-10. StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy! Kotaku.com Accessed 2008-10-10.Eduardo Vasconcellos. 2008-10-10. Blizzcon 08: StarCraft II Split Into Three Games. IGN. Accessed 2008-10-10. StarCraft II will take place both in new worlds and in worlds that had appeared in the original game. Char is backPark, Andrew. 2007-05-19. Blizzard talks Starcraft II art design. Gamespot. as is Mar Sara.2007-08-03. StarCraft II Single-Player Campaign BlizzCon Preview. Gamespot. Accessed 2007-08-07. One of the new worlds is Bel'shir, a jungle-covered protoss-colonized moon that was a religious retreat until it was attacked by the zerg; it now houses many ruined temples.2008-02-28. BlizzCast: Taking you deeper into the World of Blizzard: Episode 2. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-02-28. The world shown in the cinematic is Braxis Alpha. Other new worlds include Red Stone and Jotun. Jim Raynor is set to continue his adventures as are Infested Kerrigan2008-03-14. Blizzard Presents SC2 in China. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2008-06-07. and Zeratul. Recent Events :Main article: StarCraft II introduction. # The biggest terran faction in StarCraft II will be the "evil empire" of the Terran Dominion. The Kel-Morian Combine and Umojan Protectorate are currently independent from the Dominion, which is trying to consolidate its power. However, Raynor's Raiders are the main playable faction, and Jim Raynor is referenced as the central character of the terran campaign. # The zerg, under the command of Infested Kerrigan, have pulled back to Char and been quiet for four years. No one knows what Kerrigan is planning as her forces kill all enemy scouting parties. Kerrigan herself says the Zerg have evolved and thrived during this period, and are becoming "much, much more, for the final metamorphosis has only just begun." Kerrigan is planning on invading many worlds.2008-03-18. Zerg Reveal Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-03-21. #Raynor's Raiders have been outlawed by the Terran Dominion. Arcturus Mengsk has continually hounded them, but refused to assassinate Raynor as that could make him a martyr.2008-01-28. Biography (Terran, Jim Raynor). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-01-28. # The United Earth Directorate forces were destroyed by Infested Kerrigan's zerg armies (though a few surviving companies are still around somewhere in the Sector).Blizzard Entertainment staff. 2008-04-16. The Story so Far... Part 2: The Brood War. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-04-16. Mythology An overarching thread involving the xel'naga and rumors of hybrid creatures will weave through each of the campaigns.pR0gR4m3R. 2008-10-16. [BlizzCon08 - StarCraft2 Lore Panel 4/4]. Youtube. Accessed 2008-10-19. There will be many connections between the StarCraft: Ghost franchise and StarCraft II. For instance, Gabriel Tosh, a character from StarCraft: Ghost Academy, will appear on the Hyperion in Wings of Liberty and will serve as a connection between the two storylines.pR0gR4m3R. 2008-10-16. [BlizzCon08 - StarCraft2 Lore Panel 2/4]. Youtube. Accessed 2008-10-18. A Nova-centered cinematic appears on a TV screen in StarCraft II.Blizzcon 2008 StarCraft 2 Gameplay Panel Demo Part 2/2. Blizzard Entertainment\YouTube. Accessed on 2008-12-11 Terran Campaign: Wings of Liberty :Main article: Wings of Liberty :Zeratul: "I bring tidings of doom. The xel'naga return, the cycle nears its end, the artifacts are the key." :Jim Raynor: "The key... the key to what?" :Zeratul: "To the end of all things." :―Zeratul delivers a warning to Jim Raynorsrc The terran campaign will focus on Raynor's Raiders, which has become a mercenary force based in the Hyperion. It will also include a Zeratul-focused mini-campaign.2008-10-13. StarCraft II Zeratul cinematic. Gameplanet. Accessed 2008-10-13. Zerg Campaign: Heart of the Swarm :Main article: Heart of the Swarm Protoss Campaign: Legacy of the Void :Main article: Legacy of the Void Campaign Structure and Development The campaigns will be a tree-shaped arrangement, enabling players to choose different passages, level-ups and bonuses. Each campaign will have a distinct beginning and end, but the center portion will vary considerably when played by different people. Each person might try a different set of subquests, and finish them in different ways.Pardo, Rob and Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-06-29. WorldWide Invitational 2008: Pictures, Presentations, Videos (StarCraft II Panel: Evolving Design) SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-06-30. Each campaign will have its own starmap. Players can get closer to the main characters in interactive sets. The campaign is designed to teach players how to play the game, often without them realizing it as they're being immersed in the story.Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco, Billy Berghammer. 2008-09-08. Crafting a Sequel for Everyone: The Frank Pearce Interview (page 2). Crispy Gamer. Accessed 2008-09-10. As of August 2008, Blizzard has been "implementing certain ideas and trying out certain things to finalise decisions on the direction that's going to go." While Blizzard has a general idea of the storyline they want to tell, they must still put it into the context of missions, which they weren't able to do until recently until they had devised the framework of the different factions and how units are built. It has been confirmed that StarCraft II will not feature a co-operative campaign mode, at least when the game launches. However, Blizzard hasn't excluded the possibility and may install such a function in a future patch or expansion pack. Heroes and NPC units Heroes will not be buildable in melee maps. Each will have a unique appearance.Karune. 2008-05-15. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 38. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed on 2008-05-15. They will fill the same role they did in StarCraft I, "but they will have even more unique abilities from standard units".Karune. 2007-08-31. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 11. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-08-31. Heroes will not often appear in campaigns, and will have little impact in gameplay. Their role is mostly restricted to "story space". Some units that were "cut" during StarCraft II's development will appear in the single-player campaign as well. "Several" units from the original StarCraft will be present in the single-player campaign.There will be several units from the original StarCraft present in the single player campaign for StarCraft II, which will not be seen in the multiplayer version of StarCraft II. So don't worry, you'll be seeing some of the classics back for sure. Karune. 200809-17. SC2 single player. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-09-17. Other Races The xel'naga will fit into the story "in a rather epic tale" and will be part of the backbone of the trilogy.Mike Schramm, Chris Metzen, Andy Chambers. 2008-10-12. BlizzCon 2008: Starcraft II lore panel. Joystiq. Accessed 2008-10-12. It is important to note that the "greater whole" of the xel'naga race was wiped out, which means some of them may still be alive.Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998. According to Zeratul, the "cycle nears its end." This involves the finding of alien artifacts. Hybrids are not available as a playable race in StarCraft II, though Blizzard Entertainment has promised that "the zerg/protoss hybrid would be dealt with."Jon Blyth. 2007-06-23. StarCraft II, part two. CVG. Retrieved on June 24, 2007. When Blizzard Entertainment employee Karune was asked if there would be any hybrid units in StarCraft II, he replied "we are planning to explore the mysteries surrounding the xel'naga for the single player campaign. In the campaign you will encounter several unique units that would not otherwise be seen in multiplayer." Tilesets StarCraft II will feature 20 unique tilesets, including the Shattered City environment.Yup, there will be several new tilesets in StarCraft II, including the Shattered City one mentioned in the post above. These aren't quite ready to be revealed yet, but are definitely worth the wait. Karune. 2008-09-26. Karune: new tilesets? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-09-26. Movies StarCraft II will feature fewer, more epic movies compared to the original. In addition, there will be several in-game cutscenes of higher quality than the original games' pre-rendered movies. The number of in-game cinematics will exceed pre-rendered cinematics. This is due to the need for fine-tuning cinematics and that pre-rendered cinematics must be planned early on in the development process.2008-11-09. StarCraft II Art Panel. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed on 2008-12-09 Adaptations StarCraft II’s lore will be supported by several novels authorized by Blizzard Entertainment. The Dark Templar Saga serves as a prequel to StarCraft II, I, Mengsk is a tie-in to StarCraft IIMcNeill, Graham. 2007-07-05. Monkey Gland Sauce. Graham Mcneill's Weblog. Accessed 2008-07-26. and the StarCraft: Ghost novel Spectres will also serve as a tie-in.DeCandido, Keith R. A. 2008-05-10. [http://kradical.livejournal.com/1270648.html more StarCraft]. KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life: ramblings from a mad fedora'd writer Accessed 2008-05-10. Technologies StarCraft II will support the DirectX 9 (Pixel Shader 2.0) software. It will be fully compatible with DirectX 10 as well,Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco, Billy Berghammer. 2008-09-08. Crafting a Sequel for Everyone: The Frank Pearce Interview (page 2). Crispy Gamer. Accessed 2008-09-10. which will provide access to enhanced graphical effects.Schleicher, Keith. Interview with Blizzard's Kevin Yu on StarCraft II Gaming Trend. Accessed 2007-10-01. The Mac client will utilize OpenGL, instead. The game will also feature the Havok physics engine, allowing realistic interaction with the environment, such as "debris roll(ing) down a ramp". The game is expected to support a a variety of video cards; ATI Radeon 9800/NVIDIA GeForce FX to ATI Radeon HD 4800s and NVIDIA GeForce G200s."This meant supporting a wide range of hardware, from ATI RadeonTM 9800/NVIDIA GeForceTM FX’s to the ATI RadeonTM HD 4800s and NVIDIA GeForceTM G200s, targeting maximum utilization on each different GPU platform." StarCraft II: Effects and Techniques. Dominic Filion and Rob McNaughton. Ed. N. Tatarchuk. StarCraft II: Effects and Techniques. In Advances in Real‐Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games Course – SIGGRAPH 2008. Accessed 2008-08-20. StarCraft II will support screen resolutions from 5:4 to 16:9. Larger screens will have a slightly larger viewable range.Karune. 2008-01-11. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 25. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-01-11. The game will support wide screens but not multiple monitors.Karune. 2009-01-22. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 48. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-01-22. Game unit models will feature about 2000 polygons.Samwise Didier, Dave Berggren. WWI SC2 Art Panel. Brightcove. Accessed 2008-08-01. During game design, 3DSMax was used to create low-polygon unit models, MudBox for high-polygon models, and Photoshop was used to edit textures.Browder, Dustin. (Cavez). 2007-10-29. Question for Karune/Someone who knows. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-11-10. Gore can be disabled, but doing so will require restarting the game.Karune. 2007-10-29. Re: Gore Disabling. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-10-30. StarCraft II is written in 32-bit code but will support 64-bit systems. It has multi-core capability.Chris Sigaty, Samwise Didier. Blizzcon 2008 StarCraft 2 Press Q&A. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2008010-12. The game will support lighting effects, including a light/dark cycle used in some missions. Plans to integrate voice over internet protocol into the game are underway. Scumedit :'' Main article: Scumedit'' The game will come with a map editor called "scumedit". The StarCraft II Map Editor will improve upon the World Editor from Warcraft III in every way.Karune. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 39: Map Maker Series. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-05-28. Startools Startools, a proprietary toolset, will be included along with Scumedit. Startools lets modders design and create doodads.Park, Andrew. 2007-05-19. Blizzard talks Starcraft II art design. Gamespot. Trailers, Demonstrations & Other Videos Blizzard Entertainment made the very first publicly playable demo of StarCraft II available at BlizzCon 2007.Main page of the official Blizzard website. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed June 21, 2007. StarCraft II was featured at E3 2007, July 11th 2007.Karune. 2007-07-09. Starcraft 2 @ E3 2007!. Battle.net StarCraft General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-07-09. Only a demo was viewable, not a playable version. StarCraft II was featured at BlizzCon 2007, August 3rd to 4th, 2007. Terrans and Protoss were playable. The same two races were playable at GenCon Indy.Medievaldragon. 2007-08-21. Starcraft II Gencon Indy 2007 Video. Blizzplanet. Accessed 2007-08-22. The game was available at the 2007 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, August 22nd to 26th 2007.2007-08-20. Blizzard Entertainment® Showcases Playable Titles at Leipzig Games Convention Blizzard Entertainment Accessed 2007-08-20. Official Videos The official videos featured Blizzard Entertainment employees making official announcements. Most are stored on the official website for StarCraft II, established and maintained by Blizzard Entertainment. WWI 2007 Videos * First artwork trailer, showing a large number of scanned concept art drawings/paintings for StarCraft II and another protoss/terran battle on a different map than the first official gameplay demo video.2007-05-19. Artwork Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. * First cinematic trailer, introducing Tychus Findlay and showing in detail the involved, robotic process of installing Tychus Findlay's marine armor.2007-05-19. Cinematic Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. ELhtXtnV3pg&fmt=18 * First official gameplay demo, giving a tour by means of a video recorded from an apparently mission-like game that demonstrates and describes the protoss warp gate ability, updated zealot, the new immortal, the new terran reaper, the (now renamed) phase prism, the stalker, the new zerg nydus worm and classic zerglings, the ability to combine phase prisms and warp gate ability to create a significant force anywhere on the map, massive new colossus units, the ability for classic zerglings to mutate into new banelings, the classic mutalisks, new Phoenix, classic terran battlecruiser, new (now renamed) warp ray, and the "ultimate" unit of StarCraft II: the mothership. It finished with a terran/protoss brawl which ended with three ghosts each launching a nuke that wiped out the entirety of the protoss and terran forces involved in the brawl (with the exception of the ghosts) and then zerglings killed the ghosts and forming up the letters 'GG' as they mutated into nanelings. BlizzCon 2007 Videos Blizzard Entertainment showcased several videos at BlizzCon 2007. *'Terran Gameplay Trailer:' Shown at BlizzCon 2007, this video demonstrated terran units such as the Banshee, ghost and Thor.2007-09-13. Gameplay Video - Terran. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-14. *'Terran Campaign Trailer:' Also shown at BlizzCon, this video demonstrated some of the mechanics behind the new terran campaign, as well as discussions between Jim Raynor and other characters. *'Art Video:' A discussion featuring the artwork of StarCraft II.2007-08-03. BlizzCon StarCraft art/graphics panel discussion The Unofficial Starcraft 2 Forums @ IncGamers Accessed 2007-08-07. *'Lore Video:' Chris Metzen and Andy Chambers discussed the lore of the StarCraft universe. March 2008 Videos Blizzard Entertainment held a press event in March 2008 to showcase the Zerg. *'Zerg Reveal Trailer:' At the event, Blizzard Entertainment showed a video featuring the zerg including a voice over.2008-03-18. Zerg Reveal Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-03-21. WWI 2008 Blizzard Entertainment hosted the World Wide Invitational in June 28 to 29, 2008. Live streaming video of panels and games were shown.2008-06-28. Live Video Streams. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-06-28. BlizzCon 2008 At BlizzCon 2008, Blizzard showed several videos, including the first minute of the StarCraft II opening cinematic.2008-10-11. Starcraft II: BlizzCon 08: Opening Cinematic Teaser (CAM). Gametrailers. Accessed 2008-10-11. Or_-jn5AnoI&fmt=18 References External links * [http://www.starcraft2.com/ Official StarCraft II website] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft_II StarCraft II at Wikipedia] * StarCraft Legacy * Blizzard Artwork Trailer (YouTube) * [http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/imgs_1.html Gameplay screenshots of StarCraft II] courtesy IGN Category: Games